According to a Financial Times report (paywall) Vevo, the web-equivalent of vintage MTV, upped revenues by 30% in 2017, as the ebbs of big-budget music videos have finally start flowin’ again. “The Veve” reportedly broke even in 2017 making close to $650m — a $250m spike from 2016, with their videos topping 25B monthly views….

Once again, yearly vinyl album sales have hit another Nielsen Music-era record high, as the configuration sold 14.32 million (up 9 percent) in 2017. That’s up from the previous one-year high, registered in 2016 with 13.1 million. Nielsen Music’s 2017 tracking year ran from Dec. 30, 2016 through Dec. 28, 2017. Numbers in this story…

Pop-rock group Walk the Moon may soon have reason to celebrate every time a flash mob posts a routine set to “Shut Up and Dance” on Facebook: The social media giant will finally start paying for music. On Dec. 21, 2017, the company announced a multiyear licensing deal with Universal Music Group, allowing users to…

Kendrick Lamar performs onstage at Rihanna’s 3rd Annual Diamond Ball Benefiting The Clara Lionel Foundation at Cipriani Wall Street on Sept. 14, 2017 in New York City. R&B/hip-hop music was the year’s biggest genre, accounting for 24.5 percent of all music consumed. According to Nielsen Music, total music consumption in the U.S. in 2017 climbed…

This is just the latest legal action facing Spotify, which declined comment on the lawsuit. Earlier this year, Spotify settled a class action lawsuit for $43.4 million and a separate lawsuit with the National Music Publishers Association for $30 million. A company representing thousands of songwriters including Tom Petty, Neil Young and Steely Dan has…

One could argue that, like editing, music criticism isn’t a job; it’s a sickness. How many people do you know who, with very little prompting, will go on for several minutes or paragraphs or longer about an artist or album? Relatedly, as you may have heard, music critics take lists really seriously — especially year-end…

Is Internet culture lucrative? The answer remains bleak for any industry. Some of recent history’s most culturally powerful companies — Tumblr, Vine, Twitter, Reddit, even YouTube — have operated in the red since their founding, and have struggled to sustain themselves as businesses. Music streaming is no exception, and SoundCloud was dangerously close this year…

With SONGS Music Publishing sold to Kobalt today, Ron Perry, minority owner and president, is on his way to head up Columbia Records. Sources say Perry was already the front-runner for the job, with a signed deal to helm the storied label to happen contingent upon SONGS being sold. With that now official, Perry will take…

Welcome to a very special installment of the beloved Verge column One Video, with Kaitlyn and Lizzie. Every week of 2017 — or, technically, since February 3rd, when we had the idea — we’ve been sifting through the slew of music videos that hit the web and selecting the one (or occasionally two, or occasionally…

Carianne Marshall, left, Matt Pincus and Ron Perry of Songs Music Publishing, which is selling its assets to a rival music publisher, Kobalt. In a closely watched music deal, one upstart is buying another for the rights to a catalog of fresh pop hits like Lorde’s “Royals” and the Weeknd’s “Can’t Feel My Face.” Songs…